The Playground NYC

dance. play. space.

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The Playground NYC

dance. play. space.

ABOUT

The Playground NYC launches an innovative network of exchanges through merging professional dancers and choreographers; provides a movement lab that is financially accommodating, easily accessible, and artistically rewarding for all of its participants; and establishes a place for the dance community to grow, unite, and share ideas uninhibitedly.

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HASADNA x THE PLAYGROUND NYCSUMMER BITES NYC

AUGUST 5TH – AUGUST 10TH AT GALLIM’S LANDMARK STUDIO IN BROOKLYN, NY

Featuring key choreographers from the international dance arena, the workshop offers rare, intimate sessions. The goal is to create a positive environment where dancers and creators are free to be expressive and share their love for movement. The week-long workshop will offer two workshop times. It will include repertoire by Sharon Eyal L-E-V and Crystal Pite taught by Doug Letheren, repertoire by Luc Jacobs and includesGaga and improvisation sessions.

GAGA & REPERTOIRE

Sharon Eyal is a leading voice and one the greatest choreographers in Israel and the world. She assumed the role of house choreographer of the Batsheva Dance Company for many years. Today she is creating with her long-time collaborator Gai Behar for their own company L-E-V. They also have created works for many dance companies: Carte Blanche Dance of Norway, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Nederland Dans Theatre, and more. Their works include BILL, BERTOLINA, KILLER PIG, HOUSE, LOVE and more.

Crystal Pite is Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater and Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre. In 2013, Crystal was appointed Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells, London. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. Integrating movement, original music, text, and rich visual design, Kidd Pivot’s performance work is assembled with recklessness and rigour, balancing sharp exactitude with irreverence and risk. The company’s distinct choreographic language, a breadth of movement fusing classical elements and the complexity and freedom of structured improvisation, is marked by a strong theatrical sensibility and a keen sense of wit and invention.

Luc Jacobs is a brilliant choreographer. His dancing career progressed from traditional classical ballet to contemporary dance. He met Ohad Naharin in 2001 and joined Batsheva Dance Company in 2002 as a dancer and became Rehearsal Manager in 2005 until the present moment. He choreographs and teaches regular workshops on his repertoire and on movement and improvisation. He teaches at Hasadna in Tel Aviv and NOD in Torino.

Doug Letheren is from New Hampshire USA and is a graduate of The Juilliard School. He danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance before joining the Batsheva Dance Company, where he worked with Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal from 2007 to 2012, and became a teacher of Gaga - Ohad’s movement language. Doug is a founding member of Sharon’s company L-E-V until 2015, and has assisted with her work for companies such as Nederland Dans Theater and The Royal Swedish Opera, Pina Bausch and Crystal Pite.

dance. play. space. nyc

SESSIONS

come play.

SESSIONS

come play.

The Playground hosts seasonal "Sessions" of dance playtime for professional dancers and choreographers, at a deep discount.

Our sessions allow dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved.

In turn, choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movement with professional dancers and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.

OUR STORY

OUR STORY

FOUNDERS

one spontaneous heartfelt act.

Loni Landon and Gregory Dolbashian, both natives of New York City, created The Playground as a spontaneous, heartfelt act. Curious to see what would happen if dancers could experience different choreographers without having to save up nickels and dimes, they intuitively called their respective contacts, booked space, and invited the crowds. To their amazement, The Playground was an instant sensation and was immediately picked up by Home4Dance and Manhattan Movement Center. The Playground currently is partnered with The Gibney Dance organization and holds many of its sessions at the newly rennovated 280 Broadway space.

Loni Landon

co-founder + co-artistic director

Loni Landon is a Dancer, Choreographer, and Movement Consultant based in New York City. In addition to creating dances for her own collective Loni Landon Dance Projects, her work is commissioned by Dance Companies and Film Makers across the country.

Born and raised in New York City, Landon received her BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School in 2005.While a student at the NYC High School of Performing Arts, Landon was a NFAA Young Arts Modern Dance Winner. After Juilliard, Landon performed with Aszure Barton and Artists, Ballet Theater Munich, Tanz Munich Theater, and The Metropolitan Opera.

Landon is the 2013 Princess Grace Choreography Fellowship winner awarded with BODYTRAFFIC. As a sought after choreographer, her work has been commissioned by Keigwin and Company, Whim Whim, LEVY DANCE, The Juilliard School, BODYTRAFFIC, American Dance Institute (for Loni Landon Dance Projects), Northwest Dance Project, Hubbard Street II, Ballet X, Ballet Austin, SUNY Purchase, and Marymount Manhattan College. Her company has performed at The Joyce Theater and Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Series, as well as at Bryant Park and the first annual Beach Sessions in Rockaway Beach.

Landon has won numerous awards including 1st Prize Winner of Ballet Austin’s New American Talent Competition, Winner of Northwest Dance Project’s “Pretty Creatives’” Choreography Competition, Winner of the Next Commission from CityDance Ensemble, Finalist in the International Solo Tanz Theater Competition in Stuttgart, Germany, and Finalist in the Hannover International Choreography Competition.

Landon was also a participant in the 2012 Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation New Directions Choreography Lab made possible through the generous support of the FordFoundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Other residencies include ITE and the CUNY Dance Initiative.

Gregory dolbashian

co-founder + co-artistic director

Born and raised in New York City, Gregory made his professional stage debut at the age of eight with the Glimmerglass Opera Company. Soon after, he was cast in the Philip Glass/Robert Wilson world tour of Einstein on the Beach.

Gregory received his dance training at the Alvin Ailey School on a fellowship scholarship and then graduated cum laude from SUNY Purchase dance conservatory where he studied composition with Kazuko Hirabayashi. Since then he has gone on to dance and choreograph with a variety of artists, performing with Patrick Corbin, Nelly van Bommel, Sylvain Emard, and The Chicago Ballet. He was resident choreographer for both Chicago Ballet’s spring season in 2008 and CorbinDances in 2007. He was selected as one of four emerging choreographers in the Springboard Montreal intensive run by Juilliard’s Alexandra Wells, where he created and premiered his first international work.

Dolbashian is a recipient of The Bessie Schoenberg Residency at The Yard, winner of The Pretty Creatives Competition for Northwest Dance Project, and of The Hubbard Street 2 International Choreographic Competition. He also placed second in Ballet Austin's New American Talent competition, and has received commissions from Atlanta Ballet, TU Dance in Minnesota, CityDance Ensemble in D.C, and was the Resident Guest Artist at The Hartt School for the Spring 2013 semester under the direction of Stephen Pier. He has created school commissions at SUNY Purchase, University of Minnesota, and the Juiliard School.

Gregory debuted his own company, The DASH Ensemble, in December 2009 at JOYCE SoHo. The company has gone on to present works at the Skirball Center, DTW, The Gershwin Hotel, Riverside Theater, Summer Stage, and The JOYCE Theater. The DASH received the audience award at NYC’s DanceNOW challenge at Joe’s Pub in 2012. The DASH also premiered “DAYWALKING”, a film at New York's Tribeca Cinemas in collaboration with fashion film director Charlie Wan and was a featured act in Dance at Bryant Park summer of 2014. The company also participated in ABT Principal Daniil Simkin’s INTENSIO, collaborating on a work with Gregory Dolbashian for members of ABT set to premiere at Jacob’s Pillow 2015.